Carr Pond Mountain Lake Stahahe Loop

Harriman State Park,
Orange Co.,
New York

Hiking Trails:
White Bar Trail: White blaze
Parker Cabin Hollow: Orange blaze

Total Time: 2:05 hour
Estimated Distance: 3.9 Miles (a bit extra because of return to retrieve lost bottle)

Pros: Very quiet area, scenic terrain
Cons: Park of trail hard and difficult to follow
Hike Type: Loop
Level of Difficulty: Difficult

Map of Route:
https://goo.gl/maps/24c5kU8o6iVPCHdf8

This area is usually quieter than other nearby areas in Harriman on busy weekends, and that was what I was looking for on this hike. I had not hiked this area in a while so figured this was a good opportunity. I parked at the small parking area at the bend on County Route 106, and took the White Bar Trail up the hill, down the steep valley, and back up again to the view along the White Bar Trail at Carr Pond Mountain.

I then descended the mountain the deep valley below, and took the Parker Cabin Hollow for a short distance to an unmarked woods road heading north. I took this path until it reached County Route 106. I walked on the road for a short distance, and then took the narrow paved road to Camp Winowna. This road is gated so there are no cars here. I took some pictures where the road meets Lake Stahahe, and too some pictures. I then turned around for a short distance and did a bushwack at the stream, climbing up alongside it and passing by several small waterfalls. They were most dry at this point with hot summer weather already in place. I eventually reached the White Bar Trail, which I took back to my car.

Map of the Route

White Bar Trail at the Trailhead Parking

Minor View Along the First Summit of Carr Pond Mountain

View from the Main Summit View at Carr Pond Mountain

Me at the Carr Pond Mountain View

Another View from the Carr Pond Summit

Dense Fern Area in the Parker Cabin Hollow

Bridge Across the Brook in Parker Cabin Hollow

Swamp Area in Parker Cabin Hollow

Road Alongside Lake Stahahe

Abandoned Structure Near Lake Stahahe

Abandoned Gatehouse at Lake Stahahe

Lower End of Lake Stahahe

Nice View of Lake Stahahe

Another View of Lake Stahahe

Mostly Dry Waterfalls at an Inlet to Lake Stahahe

Stahahe Brook Loop, Harriman State Park

Orange Co.,
New York

Hiking Trails:
Appalachian Trail: White blaze
Arden-Surebridge Trail: Red blaze
Stahahe Brook Trail: Red blaze
Nurian Trail: White blaze

Total Time: 1:40 hours
Estimated Distance: 3.33 miles
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Level of Recommendation: Recommended
Points Of Interest: Scenic brook, quiet lake
Pros: Good climb, nice area, hardly-used area of the park
Cons: Trailhead doesn't exist, beginning of hike is too loud from the highway

Hiking Partner:
Rachel Friedman

Google Map of Parking:

View 2013 Hiking Locations in a larger map

I was in this general area the last two hikes and wanted to complete all the trails in the area. This was the last significant foliage hike, and most trees had already lost their leaves. We started in the Elk Pen, took the Appalachian Trail for a short distance to the Arden-Surebridge Trail, along the side of the Elk Pen field, and then took the Stahahe Brook Trail. Much of the Stahahe Brook Trail has been rerouted along the eastern side of the brook valley due to a collapsed bridge along the brook. We took the new trail route until the trail terminus at the Nurian Trail. We then took the Nurian Trail for a little bit towards Lake Stahahe, and then cut off the trail to the woods right and down towards Lake Stahahe. We then turned around, back on the Nurian Trail, and took the old Stahahe Brook Trail back down along the western flank of the brook. The brook was easy to cross despite the bridge being out, especially with the dryness of the season. We then continued from here back the same way down to the car.

Map of the Route.
Harriman/Bear Mountain Trails Northern Map

Appalachian Trail at the Elk Pen

Looking at the Mountains Behind the Elk Pen

Last Remaining Foliage Near the Elk Pen

Arden-Surebridge Termination at the Appalachian Trail

Appalachian Trail Going Thru the Elk Pen,
with the Parking Area in the Distance

Hiking Along the Arden-Surebridge Tral

View Across the Meadow on the Arden-Surebridge Trail

Amazing Foliage Colors

View of the Meadow from the Stahahe Brook Trail

Nice Trees on the Stahahe Brook Trail

Foliage at Lake Stahahe

Lake Stahahe Outlet

Foliage Looking at Mountain Behind Lake Stahahe

Stahahe High Peak,

Boston Mine
Harriman State Park
Orange County,
New York

Total Time: 1:30 hours
Total Distance: 3 Miles

Trails:
Stahahe High Peak Trail: Unmarked
Island Pond Road: Unmarked
Nurian Trail: Yellow Blaze
White Bar (WB) Trail: (white Blaze)

Hiking Partner:
Shimmy Rosenberg

The previous hike was great and I wanted to do a hike around that area again. This was a hike I had never done before, which is quite unusual for me, and I was very much looking forward to it. We parked at the trailhead of the WB by Car Pond Mnt. We wanted to hike towards lake Stahahe, so we bushwacked down the stream that feeds the lake. There were several nice waterfalls and cascades along this bushwack. Once we hit the lake, we took the camp service road north through the camp to try to find the Stahahe High Peak Trail. (Harriman is full of summer camps run by State for underpriveledged children from New York City. The ranges don't like when you hike through the camps, so its best to avoid hiking through them in the summer.)

We has a hard time finding the Stahahe High Peak Trail from the Stahahe approach, as its not an official trail and is unmarked. My older trail conference maps have the unmarked trail but the newer editions of the map don't show this part of the trail from the Stahahe approach. We found the general area of the trail, and started heading up the mountain using a little bit of guesswork to maintain the route up the mountain. There are some sporadic "homemade" red blazes which were helpful in maintaining the route. Near the top is a short but sweet scramble.

Once at the top we were afforded and absolutely magnificent view. This is one of the best views in Harriman! (I know I have said this line countless times before on many different trails...) The view is unobstructed with miles of mountains and hills, with excellent views of Harriman, Sterling Forest, and Lake Stahahe directly below. We continued along the trail - at this point it is much better maintained. (I would recommend if you take this route on your own to do it from Island Pond Road as its a much easier route.) We continued until Island Pond Road, which is an old abandoned mining road that is now used as a hiking trail, and went north on Island Pond Road until we hit the Boston Mine (right after the Nurian and Dunning Trails).

The Boston Mine is one of the civil-war era iron mines in the region, with extensive deposits of rough magnetite iron ore in the dumps. This particular mine has a very impressive cut in the rock and has a deep hole. We ventured into the mine scrambling around on rocks in the water to take some good photos inside the mine.

After exploring the mine we headed back south on the Nurian Trail, continued where it intesected with the WB Trail (did this small stretch last week), and then continued along the WB back to our car at the trailhead.

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Map of the route

Me sitting atop the upper waterfall.

The Lower Waterfall, right near Lake Stahahe

Beginning of Lake Stahahe,

where the stream enters in.

View from the south side of the lake

Same view as above, with a nice subject

Climbing the scramble before the summit

of Stahahe High Peak

Shimmy at the summit, facing southwest

with Lake Stahahe in the background

Another view of Lake Statahe from the summit

Facing southwest with the south portion of lake

A fuller view of the lake

View from the summit, facing west

The entrance of the Boston Mine